GOD WENT SURFING WITH THE DEVIL

Since the year 2000, over 4,300 Palestinian and 1,000 Israeli lives have been claimed by the escalating conflict in the region. The situation grew markedly worse in 2006, when Israel responded to the election of Hamas by sealing off the borders, ending the free-flow of people and goods. Palestinian militants reacted to the siege by targeting Israel's civilian population with deadly rocket strikes; the Israeli Army countered with air strikes, targeting militants but often claiming the lives of innocent residents.

In 2007 it emerged that a small group of young men were surfing in Gaza, sharing battered surfboards they had attained prior to the siege. Word traveled north to Israel, and that same year, a mixed group of Israelis and Americans delivered a dozen boards to their Palestinian counterparts.

In the spring of 2008, they would attempt to deliver another 23 surfboards into Gaza. By this time the situation in Gaza had deteriorated further, the border still sealed, with military activity a near daily occurrence.

"God Went Surfing With the Devil" charts the difficulties and dangers encountered by surfers in the region. Along the way it speaks to Israelis, Arab-Israelis, and Palestinians affected by the violence, charting their daily struggle to supersede the conflict through the joys of surfing.

Judith Supine is a street artist that lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She could not speak until the age of 17, so she used drawings as a way of communicating. Judith uses recycled materials, knifes, glues, high quality fashion magazines with uncomfortable contents. She is all a rebel.
she is in street art and there are a lot of people historically who I’ve really liked. But in terms of new people, I particularly love the work of Brooklyn artist Judith Supine. It’s a surreal combination of old engraving art mixed with hand-drawn and painted images. He does paste up posters, but they’re not just square, they’re cut-out shapes of these interesting looking characters. The closest thing I could compare it to are the Monty Python animations

Korean-born artist Ran Hwang creates stunning large installations using buttons and pins to stitch up clothes. When you look up close her creations look like a pile of pins, but from a distance installations transform into amazing images of birds and cherry blossom trees. By the way Hwang graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York and has exhibited his work in New York, Paris and Seoul.

An artist paints on the back of three models in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province, on Monday, as part of an effort calling for the protection of endangered animals. Picture: Xinhua/Zheng Shuaikkkkk

An artist paints on the back of three models in Fuzhou, capital of southeast China's Fujian Province, on Monday, as part of an effort uuuucal

It all started at the local skateshop, a long time ago. We would meet up there every day after school. There was a couch and a VCR, we’d watch videos and talk about new tricks. It felt good, reassuring. It inspired comfort. A hOme away from home.

We wanted to take that feeling with us, and share it with our friends. So we did, two brothers and acouple of t-shirts. That was more than 10 years ago, we were kids.

We grew up : snowboarding, graphic design, travels, new friends and life’s experiences became ingredients. A third brother joined us while time kept feeding that simple idea : to offer a piece of hOme to everyone, even when your journey leads you to strange places.

Where and When became inspirations, and we knew we had to concentrate on the things you could take with you practically anywhere, because penguins can’t carry much on their backs. Yes that’s right, penguins. Somehow they got involved, and teddy bears too. Go figure. They got onboard along the journey from Switzerland to Canada. Now they just stick around. But this is another story altogether… oh wait, it’s not:

All this is a story about travelling in order to experience the meaning of the place we each choose to call hOme. It is a story about time and space, about small things and big ideas, and how going places affects you, even if it’s just down the street.